Samsung’s new cell phone repair kits are better than nothing

Samsung officially introduced its repair kit program in the US this week. Now anyone who owns one of the few Galaxy phones covered by the program can order the parts, tools and instructions needed to repair their devices themselves.

The company first announced its repair program in April. Thanks to some laws in Europe that require devices to declare how repairable they are, similar legislation to ensure consumers’ right to repair their own phones, laptops and gadgets seems all but inevitable in the US. Companies like Samsung and Apple are striving to get ahead of the game and set the tone for what device repairability will mean. The problem is that now that these companies have unveiled their repair kit programs, they seem to offer a bite of repairability rather than a full buffet.

Samsung has only made repair kits available for some of its products, namely the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S21 phones and the Galaxy Tab 7+. That’s a total of seven devices, out of the hundreds of Samsung devices that are still in service. In addition, only certain parts of each device can be repaired: the screen, the charging port and the glass on the back. (Galaxy Tab owners can also swap out the battery.) Though Samsung’s repair kit rollout is limited, the process so far has been smoother than when Apple’s repair program rolled out in April. Apple’s kits were expensive, unwieldy, and often more trouble than they were worth.

Samsung, along with Google (which provides parts and tools for its Pixel phones), has teamed up with advocacy group iFixit for the right to repair. It’s a good partnership and a step towards a more fixable future. But right now, that future is only manifesting itself in fits and starts. If Samsung, Apple, and other companies want to build a robust self-repair program before the regulatory hammer falls, they need to step up their efforts.

Here’s more news from the Gear Desk.

Hey Alexa, sweep my floor

Say what you will about Amazon, but there’s no denying that it’s just a big old hungry bear looking to devour everything around it. The latest entity to scream screamingly slide down Amazon’s gaping maw is iRobot, the company that makes Roomba vacuums. Amazon will acquire the company for a whopping $1.7 billion in cash, which seems like small change compared to its $3.9 billion fiesta from OneMedical last month. (That’s right, Amazon is now a healthcare provider too.)

Sure, this acquisition has all sorts of privacy implications, especially considering Amazon could soon own the map of your home’s floor plan collected by sensors on iRobot’s vacuum cleaners. But hey, just think of the other possibilities: ring cameras in your robotic lawnmower! Flying Dustbuster drones eavesdropping on your conversations! Everything will really be possible.

Clubhouse is divided

Do you remember the clubhouse? The audio-based social network took off in 2020 in the early days of the pandemic as it brought relief from the isolation and Zoom fatigue many of us were feeling. (Ha ha, glad that’s over, right?) Because the app was invitation-only, it brought a sense of exclusivity to the clubhouse experience that made it exciting. The clubhouse soon became the virtual meeting place for Silicon Valley bigwigs to delight one another with their collective presence. Then the app opened up to the general public, and its appeal fizzled faster than a warm La Croix.

Now Clubhouse is trying to reclaim some of its old cool by making parts of itself exclusive again. A new feature allows users to split rooms into multiple clubhouses (clubhouse?), allowing them to keep their conversations private. Clubhouse is now accepting requests to create “houses” but will implement them on a case-by-case basis.

Obviously, Clubhouse hopes these smaller, better curated experiences will draw users back from the many other, much more popular audio chat services. When Feature Announcement Clubhouse CEO Paul Davison wrote on Twitter: “The best social experiences aren’t open to everyone. They are small and curated. That creates intimacy, trust and friendship.”

Instagram NFTs

After a controversial move to prioritize its TikTok clone roles in users’ feeds, Instagram is embracing another vibrant online trend: NFTs. In May, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced that the social platform would dip its toes in the then-hot waters of the NFT. Of course, the NFT market has cooled down significantly since May. Still, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that his company is expanding its plan to enable NFTs on Instagram in more than 100 countries. The feature allows users to create posts as NFTs and buy or sell them using digital wallets.

Speaking of non-fungible assets…

Take an NFT, it will take longer

The hallmark of NFTs has always been that they are digital. Artists who mint their works as NFTs create a marker on a blockchain that indicates that a work is original. Otherwise, the piece itself is as infinitely re-creable as any online GIF. (OK, it’s actually a lot more complicated, so here’s a guide that explains exactly how NFTs work.)

Thanks to companies like Infinite Objects and Tokenframe, you can now stick this digital art on your wall. This week, on the Gadget Lab podcast, WIRED’s Lauren Goode and Michael Calore talk about the strange world of NFTs and how physical frames for digital art could make it more accessible to the uninitiated.